Sheep and Fishes
by BirukiMeraki
Summary: "My mother had to put up with a horrible man called Gabe to hide mine. He hit her and stuff but she stuck out for as long as she could." He let out a loud exhale through his nose. "She thought I didn't know." She noticed he clenched his fists tightly and nodded. "The mortals always suffer under the gods' selfish acts."


Daeira sat at her table, facing her food. Someone placed their plate next to her and was about to sit when another person hissed, "Do you really want to sit next to the black sheep? Athena's biggest disappointment?" With that, the person instantly took their plate away.

"Why is she called the black sheep?" came a hushed whisper. Must be one of the new campers.

"She's a senior camper, yet has never received Athena's blessing."

"What do you mean she hasn't received a blessing? Then why is she in the Athena cabin?"

"She's been claimed, sure. Athena admits she is hers but not more than that. No blessings, no contact. Like she's an embarrassment."

"Don't forget the fact that she hates maths and prefers to read poetry and fiction." The last word was spat out like it left a dirty taste. "Why not Apollo?" someone else hissed.

"Don't you have anything better to do other than rehash stories older than yourselves?" Daeira snapped, grabbing her plate and walking away. She stalked up to the altar and scraped a portion of her favourite food into the fire. "Thanks, Mother. Hope you're having a grand time," she muttered before walking with her plate to the direction of the lake, knowing she won't be disturbed there.

She was eating quietly, bare feet in the water when she noticed ripples from somewhere not far from her position and she saw something beginning to rise out of it. Instantly, she took her feet out and tucked it under her. She wasn't afraid. For now. She'd left her bow and arrows in her cabin but she had a penknife in her pocket. It wasn't Celestial Bronze but it would at least buy her some time. 'Always have a contingency plan,' her father's voice came back to her as she slid the penknife out of her pocket and unfolded it noiselessly. She set her plate aside and crouched at the ready.

The thing rose higher and she tensed her muscles to ready her pounce when she realised that she recognised the head that rose out of the water. "Percy?"

He jumped up when he saw her. "Oh, it's you."

"What are you doing?" she asked, noticing that though he just came out of the lake, his clothes were still dry.

"Stand down first," he drawled, his hands out. Slowly, she folded the knife, slid it back into her pocket and uncoiled herself, flexing her tense muscles. "Lunch with Dad," he finally answered.

"Must be nice," she shot at him, taking her plate again and settling herself back against the tree trunk, letting her feet dangle back into the water.

"What do you mean?"

"The Athena cabin is not like the Poseidon cabin," she remarked, pushing her food around. "You have Zara and Tyson, and you love them both to the end of the line and back. You're a small happy family. While the Athena cabin is not as full as the Hermes cabin, there's still a lot of us. Unfortunately, that doesn't really make us a small happy family. Equally unfortunately, a lot of us inherited the Athena pride. You may not notice, but there are certain stereotypes for Athena kids. I don't fall in much of those stereotypes."

"You don't really look like a child of Athena," Percy agreed, nodding at her eyes, black as night.

"That's just one of it," Daeira laughed. "You've been in the Athena cabin, beds are tossed aside like sleep is not important when I'm sure they know that lack of sleep actually damages brain cells and ultimately destroys them. Also, they look at you weird when you're lying in bed with a good book. A book that is, gods forbid, fiction. Fiction opens up the mind, makes you wonder. They scorn philosophy, when they seem to forget that the basis of Grecian culture is formed around their philosophers. They laugh at me when I go around, playing pranks with the Stolls. Their faces when I couldn't solve a quadratic equation." She laughed again, a hard laugh.

"I can't solve one either, don't worry," Percy placed a hand on her shoulder.

She smiled. "It's different for you. Everyone seems to expect children of Athena to have all the answers. Sometimes that just isn't the case."

"Aren't cabin counselors supposed to oversee these kind of things? Keep their cabin in line?"

"You of all people should know that Annabeth isn't really here," came the quiet reply, shyly whispered by lips pointed downwards, afraid of retribution. Daeira clapped her hands over her mouth. "Gods, I'm sorry. My mind is much faster than my mouth and I just blurt these things-"

Percy waved it off, smiling sadly. "No apologies necessary." They turned away from each other, gazing at different things for awhile. "How is she?" he asked finally, voice low and hesitant.

She shrugged. "You've known her a lot longer than I have so I can't really say. She comes back to camp every few days or so, crashing immediately into bed and sleeping for three days before going back out. Her heartbeat's slightly elevated but when she's like that we usually give her space and feed her nectar periodically. Redesigning Olympus is no mean feat."

Percy gave a noncommittal grunt and they lapsed into silence again.

Daeira opened her mouth and wanted to ask something but Percy beat her to the punch. "So how is it that you don't act like the other Athena kids? I mean, I heard she's only attracted to intellectuals."

She had a feeling that he was probably deflecting from answering her question but decided to humour him anyway. "My dad is an intellectual," she laughed. "Athena must have miscalculated and me being alive just reminds her of that miscalculation, which I imagine she hates."

"What does your dad do?"

"He's an anthropologist. Before that he was a child prodigy; at the age of five he was solving problems directed towards children more than twice his age. Top of the class for his entire school life, musical genius who plays by ear. Not to mention the school's heartthrob in uni. I suppose that caught her attention, the fact that he could be all that. They met when my dad was fast becoming a leading anthropologist almost the moment he graduated. A year later she dropped me off at the doorstep and explained who she really was." Daeira made an explosion sound. "Biggest bomb of an intellect's life."

Percy laughed. "Yeah the story sounds familiar. Your dad still loved you though, didn't he?"

She nodded. "Of course. Being who he is he understood the nature of what I am better than I do. It took him years to find this place, homeschooling me in this greenhouse with these carnivorous plants."

"What?!"

"Carnivorous plants often secrete some sort of scent to attract their prey. Some smelt sweet but there was this one plant called the rafflesia that secreted this gods-awful stench like a rotting corpse. He placed those at each corner."

"To hide your scent," Percy gasped. She nodded. "Well that's one way to do it," he laughed. "My mother had to put up with a horrible man called Gabe to hide mine. He hit her and stuff but she stuck out for as long as she could." He let out a loud exhale through his nose. "She thought I didn't know."

She noticed he clenched his fists tightly and nodded. "The mortals always suffer under the gods' selfish acts."

Another heavy silence. After an eternity, Percy stood up and was about to leave when something occurred to him. "Aren't you going to tell me off?"

"For what?"

"For not having mandatory dinner with everyone else?"

She shrugged and gestured at her own plate. "Wouldn't that just be hypocritical?"

This time he shrugged. "Never stopped other children of Athena." She lifted an unimpressed eyebrow and went back to her meal. "You weren't kidding, you really don't act like the other Athena children," he shook his head in mirth.

"Don't remind me," Daeira rolled her eyes. "Athena's biggest disappointment here."

Percy laughed again and decided to walk back to her. He seated himself opposite her in the water. "Is that what they call you?" She cracked a small smile and when she noticed his huge grin, smiled slightly wider. "So why do you come here?" he asked, floating serenely back and forth.

"I like the quiet. And the water, as well," she gestured at her feet, submerged up to the ankles, secretly glad that the topics are lighter. "The mosquitoes are really annoying, but what can you do. You take what you can get."

Percy nodded in agreement. The lake was his favourite place in camp for obvious reasons. "There are no mosquitoes underwater, y'know," he suggested, green eyes twinkling.

"Yeah, well unless I grow gills or something that wouldn't be possible, would it?" He grinned at her quick answer. "I can't even swim that well. I had to teach myself a couple of years ago when I was a kid."

They remained silent as she placed her empty plate aside and gazed at the ripples her feet made. "I can teach you, y'know," Percy broke the silence. "How to swim."

"Is that so?" Daeira asked sardonically, lips quirked and eyebrow cocked.

Percy just nodded eagerly, like a floppy haired puppy. A green-eyed, adorable floppy-haired puppy. He took her hand and pulled. "Come on."

She jerked her head up and instinctively pulled her hand away. "Now?

"No time like the present," he countered with a grin. He held out his hands for her to take.

She hesitated when a thought occurred to her. "Wait," she narrowed her eyes at him. "This isn't a ploy to get me to strip, is it?"

He laughed heartily. "Ah, ever the cynic. I'm too much of a gentleman, anyway." She rolled her eyes and he held out his hands again. "Come on. Do you trust me?"

She hesitated still. "I don't have to strip, right?" He shook his head, that devilish grin on his face. Finally, she threw her hands up, muttered, "Goddess of wisdom, my ass," took his hands and plunged into the cold lake.

"I should warn you, I can't do that floating thing where half your body's in the water. I can only do it lying down," she warned.

"Okay, I'm going to safely assume you suck at anything to do with water," he laughed.

"I drink it fine."

They tread water until the water lapped at her chin and she raised her chin higher. "Now what?"

In response, he looped her arms around his shoulders. "Wait, what are you doing?" she asked quickly, trying to pull her arms away but he held them firmly.

"Just trust me," Percy whispered as he took her forward and steadily underwater.

"Percy, what are you doing?" Daeira asked, panicked as the water nearly reached her mouth. "Percy, stop!"

To her surprise, he did. "Don't tell me you're afraid of water," his eyes laughed at her.

"More like afraid of drowning," she snapped.

He chuckled. "Do you trust me?"

"About as far as I can throw-" her sentence was then drowned out, quite literally, as he plunged them both into the dark lake.

"Open your eyes, Daeira," she heard Percy laugh.

Slowly, she did. What she saw amazed her. They were encapsulated in an air bubble while slowly lowering deeper into the lake. Not only that, she had no idea how many species there were in the lake. She reached out a hand in wonder and then caught herself. She looked at him and he nodded, so she reached beyond the bubble into the water and tried to touch a passing herd of seahorses. The seahorses floated around them and he flushed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said quickly. She quirked her eyebrow but decided to let it slide. Percy floated closer and began instructing her on how to swim. Underwater, swimming was as natural to him as walking was on land, and that was exactly how he taught her how to swim; like a parent teaching a child how to walk.

* * *

It was very late by the time they resurfaced; the sun had slid off its apex, the moon just beginning to rise, the rest of the camp were already winding down and were getting ready for dinner.

"This is so surreal," Daeira commented, picking at her dry shirt and clasping her dry cargo shorts.

"You get used to it," Percy chuckled.

They walked back to where Daeira's shoes still lay. As she washed her dishes in the lake (with Percy's permission), he commented, "Y'know, this is kind of nice."

"What is?"

"Us talking. Without fighting for once." She just smiled, not knowing what to say. "I never understood why Nico was so fond of you; how you were somehow immediately friends. But now I think I do."

"Lonely people, or people who used to be lonely, always recognise people who are also lonely," she replied with a shrug.

Percy placed a hand on her shoulder again and squeezed. "You don't have to be lonely here, y'know. I'll be your friend."

"If you can stand being with me for hours without fighting," she joked.

"Hey, I did it just now!"

"So you did," she mused, turning her gaze to the moonlit lake.

He watched her, her dark eyes reflecting the moon and turning silver. Her face in profile, ethereal as a silver nymph as it was lit by the cold moonlight. "Come on," Percy said as he took her hand. "I'll walk you back to your cabin."


End file.
